Roland

Roland, makers of all things MIDI and beyond, have a new product out called V-Drums® Friend Jam. The software lets you connect your Roland V-Drums (electronic, MIDI drums) to your Mac or PC with a MIDI interface (not included) and, in the words of the press release, “allows V-Drums users across the globe to interact with each other while improving their drumming skills with play-along… Read More

Short Version: The Roland R-05 is a pocket recorder for professionals and semi-pros looking to record voice and/or music live. It’s a far sight better than any smartphone recorder and the feature set, including effects, speed changers, and rudimentary editing including song splitting, is strong for a small, compact, $299 recorder. Read More

Field recording sessions are fun, but there’s a pretty large gap between the low and high ends of the gear. You either get a handheld stereo recorder, or have to haul a mess of interfaces and preamps with your laptop. But this multi-track recorder from BOSS fills in that gap nicely with a very versatile and flexible recording platform. Read More

Roland just started shipping the AC-33 Acoustic Chorus Guitar Amplifier. This cool gadget is world’s first battery powered amp built specifically for acoustic guitar.
With a 30-watt amp and 5 inch speakers, you’re not going to rock Knebworth with this thing. But if you’re trying to impress the college girls at the local coffee house with your re-interpretation of “Your… Read More

This small device is a Roland tuner – chromatic, guitar, and bass – with a needle pointed and pitch verification as well as a monitor. This means you can tune your electric instrument and then run it through this box to listen to how things sound on your headphones. It also supports effects pedals chained from the guitar the the monitor and includes a built-in metronome. Read More

I happened by the Roland booth today at CES and watched as freehand technique guru Johnny Rabb held a wooden stick in each hand and used said sticks to delicately berate a Roland TD-20S drum set. Read More

Expanding on the popular SR-16 drum machine, Alesis has incorporated eight velocity sensitive pads and released the Performance Pad. The kit-mountable Performance Pad comes with 2 inputs for external kick and hi-hat pedals along with a line-level input for attaching your iPod of CD player. A MIDI output (but not input?) is also incorporated.
The 233 included sounds are mappable to any pad. Read More

For millions of years, people have been listening to music. But now, thanks to new technology, they can actually make music as well. At CES, I came across a few items that made my inner musician geek out, including a self-tuning guitar and a pretty sweet drum synth pad, plus a couple of new recording gadgets for capturing your awful performances of “She Bangs” on the go.
Pics… Read More